


Before You're Old

by Jemisard



Series: Coda [1]
Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-01
Updated: 2011-06-01
Packaged: 2017-10-19 23:54:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/206584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jemisard/pseuds/Jemisard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spock Prime has something important to tell Dr McCoy. About what was and could be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before You're Old

"Are you present, Doctor McCoy?"

"No, I've stepped out." The Southern drawl was thick at this time of night, familiar in old ways.

Spock resisted the urge to smile. "I will wait for you to return in that case, Doctor."

McCoy peered out of his office door, leaning back in his chair. Spock canted his head in recognition. "Doctor."

"Sorry, I thought you were- Never mind." He came out, smoothing down his work tunic. "How can I help you?"

For a moment, Spock took the liberty of just looking. It had been so long, so very long. The last time he had seen Leonard, he had been frail with age and bleached of colour, wit and sarcasm trapped inside a failing body that. Not like this. He had never known him like this, so very young and vital.

"Sir?"

McCoy was watching him expectantly, eyebrow starting to rise with irritation. Spock once again pushed down the urge to smile. "I had wished to come and speak with you, Doctor."

That was rewarded with the full eyebrow and stare. "Speak away, Delegate-"

"Ambassador," he corrected softly. "Ambassador Selek." The name he had taken once in his time to save his own child self.

McCoy was starting to get exasperated. It was the twitch near his eye. Spock had missed that twitch. "Ambassador Selek. Can I help you, or are you just down here to see the loud and emotional human condition?"

That was the Doctor McCoy he remembered. "I have heard of your medical expertise and rapid promotion through the ranks. I was interested to engage in conversation with such an individual."

"Then I suggest you go find the Captain, he'd hate miss an opportunity to talk about himself. Cadet to Captain in one mission."

"I have spoken to some length with the Captain. However it is your unique experiences and story which currently hold my interest." He allowed a hint of amusement to show, clearly further confusing Leonard.

He tugged his collar in response. "Yeah, well, there isn't much to say. Jim was insistent that his promotion include choosing his CMO and that I be made available for it."

"Modesty. Often driven by the emotion of embarrassment and the false belief that others will not be intimidated or feel slighted by achievements made. It is unnecessary with me, Doctor. I am aware that you were offered your choice of postings due to your admirable performance during the crisis."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"Jim told me, of course."

"Jim-" McCoy was starting to get suspicious and paranoid instead. "Since when do Vulcans use nicknames? And drop titles? Spock's still calling us all by our title and rank and we've been serving together for six months, now."

"Jim and I go back a long way," Spock replied sagely.

"Jim had never seen a Vulcan before Spock's belligerent, petty hearing. He would've told me about you." The chin went up in that tiny flick of defiance. "So who are you and where are you getting your information?"

"Doctor, please, you are working yourself into an emotional state."

"Damn right I am! Now, Ambassador or not, I want some answers from you!" He snatched up a hypospray, regarding Spock suspiciously.

"Very well." He inclined his head. "In the name of saving you from injury from your emotional state. I am- was, Ambassador Spock before I took the name Selek."

"Ambassador..." McCoy leaned back against the biobed, blinking a couple of times and face a mask of total shock. "Why the hell didn't you say that earlier?!"

"Simple, Doctor." He allowed himself a small smile. "I was reluctant to surrender the chance to deliver the news in this fashion."

"Reluctant to- You mean you wanted to see my face when you baited it out?!"

Spock considered this, then nodded. "That is a correct assessment."

"You pointy eared, green blooded, hobgoblin!" McCoy ranted. "All the damn same, coming in here, just to see if you can get a rise out of the human, feeling so smug and superior because you can't feel a thing and think you're so much better than poor emotional-"

His rant died as Spock curled a hand on his upper arm.

"I have missed you dearly, old friend. Even your irrationalities and poorly controlled emotions," he teased softly.

McCoy looked down to the hand on his arm with as much shock as Spock had ever seen. "You... what?"

"I have missed you dearly." He let his hand slid to McCoy's elbow before removing it. "It has been many years since I have argued with you."

"I need a drink." McCoy straightened and walked out to his office. Spock followed him, watching as the doctor poured himself a measure of bourbon and took a mouthful. "So... what? You're telling me that not only were you and Jim some kind of life buddies but you're saying we were, what?"

"Friends, I believe is the common term, Doctor."

"Ha!" Slumping into his seat, McCoy looked up at him, then nodded to the chair opposite. "You and me? Friends?"

Spock nodded. "I spent the last three months of your life with you. You told me that you believed having someone to fight with kept you going."

He observed a discomfort in the doctor, probably at the mention of his demise. "How, I mean, dammit, Spock. You don't go discussing a man's death with him like that!"

"My apologies, Doctor, but his fate is not necessarily your own. You may not live half his life span, let alone the one hundred and forty years that he did."

"A hundred and forty!" McCoy drained the rest of the glasses. "Christ. Really?"

"I am Vulcan. We are not in the habit of lying."

"A hundred and forty..." He sounded wistful and musing. "And I chose to spend my last days with you?"

"Indeed. Should it have been a longer time, I would have gladly given it to you."

"Good god man, why? You're a Vulcan, isn't it pointless to sit with a dying man to you?"

"I am half Vulcan, Doctor, and more than that, Vulcans believe strongly in being with their loved ones, to enjoy what time they have left with them and carry their memory always."

Silence reigned.

"Loved ones?"

Spock pondered briefly if McCoy had discerned that he had not entirely intended that in the terms of friendship, and concluded he had. Should he have meant friends, he would have said such. "Yes, Doctor. Loved ones, meaning those that are-"

"I know what loved ones means, you copper bleeding computer!"

McCoy was upset by this revelation, clearly. Spock tried to ease it over. "I did not speak of my affections. Given our advanced ages and very different lives, myself as the Vulcan ambassador to Romulus and you as Starfleet Admiralty, it would have caused unnecessary disruption to our lives."

"So what? You'll tell it to me because I'm less likely to have a heart attack when you say it?!"

"While that is a consideration, given the delicacy of aged human physiology after a lifetime of high levels of stress and insufficient relaxation, my main purpose in bringing such a matter to light is the comparative youth of both yourself and my younger counterpart and the prospect that neither of you may have to wait until you are too old to enact changes to end your isolation."

"What does that mean in Standard?"

Spock sighed and tried to think of a suitably simplified statement. "You are young enough to enjoy a relationship together and establish the feasibility of it lasting before you may face reassignment or new career choices. Doctor? Are you all right? Bourbon is intended for imbibing, not inhalation."

"I know that!" He coughed a few more times, wiping the pained tears from his eyes. "So you came down here to try and hook me and you, young you, up?"

He considered and nodded. "Yes, Doctor. Or to advise you that such a relationship would not be unwelcome on my behalf."

"You barely ever talk to me, and when you do it's just to be a condescending, cold blooded git!" He slammed a hand on the table. "Why the hell would I want to even be friends with him?! And he's got even less interest in playing nice with me!"

Spock slid his hand to cover McCoy's, skin on skin and inappropriately intimate, but he _needed_ to convey this right. "Because I do not wish you and he to discover too late what might have been, Leonard. You need not spend your last hours with your best friend, but a life time with someone who does, or will, love you. Regardless of his cold logic and pointed ears."

McCoy seemed to have lost words. It was always gratifying to render the doctor speechless. "I will disturb you no further, Leonard, but please, I ask you consider my words."

McCoy nodded mutely.

Spock withdrew his hand, holding it up to McCoy. "Live long and prosper."

He was nearly out of ear shot when he heard McCoy activate the comm and ask Spock if he would come down to medical when he was free.

He allowed himself the luxury of a smile as he left.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for st_xi_kink prompt, "Older!Spock meeting Younger!McCoy. I really want fic of his reaction with the idea that older!Spock was in love with McCoy. Giving him a subtle push towards younger Spock."


End file.
